For those who may not be “in the know,” South by Southwest (fondly known as SXSW) is coming up later this week in Austin, kicking off on March 12. There are three unique segments to this yearly event, broken up into the interactive, film and music portions. If my bank account was a bit more robust at the present time, I’d be attending both the interactive and music portions, but alas, I will only be attending the interactive portion, which in itself will be chock-full of valuable insights. There’s always next year to befriend Thom Yorke…if the rumor mill is true.

Techies covet this event, and often treat it as a yearly pilgrimage to feed their scientific souls. I however, will be approaching the event with a focused eye on social media and small business. It’s my goal to glean as much as I possibly can, so I can return to breathe new and improved nuggets of genius into this blog. Our goal after all is to create a reliable resource for those of you operating businesses on the front lines. Consider me your conduit to the brilliance that is bound to emerge from a long weekend of seminars, workshops and keynotes with the online world’s elite.

Being an interactive event, I’ve had the agony pleasure of sifting through five days of events running from 9 a.m. to midnight, and I think I’ve successfully whittled my schedule down to a good mix of sessions and interactive panels.

I wanted to take a few moments before I go about over-packing my bags to review some of the sessions I’m anticipating the most:

Social Media Marketing for Your Business with Tony Adam and Chris Winfield. Now that many small business owners are immersed in the basics of social media, perhaps it’s time to graduate to a more advanced, strategic approach. This seminar proposes to help attendees do just that.

Customer Service Goes Social with Melanie Baker. A recent study just revealed that social media adoption by U.S. small businesses has doubled since 2009. Given that compelling statistic, it’s clear that more and more businesses are engaging with customers online. Moreover, customer service via social media is changing the way businesses relate to their customers and vice versa. I’m very excited to sit in on this one and hope to bring some key insights back to this blog.

Video Search Optimization Strategies to Grow Your Business with Bill Leake. It’s no secret that Google loves blogs and multimedia. In fact, you’ve probably noticed more and more relevant videos popping up in the top of your search engines, right? This is one area that is growing rapidly for both B2C and B2B businesses. This will only increase moving forward so it’s worth keeping an eye on this emerging practice.

Marketing: Unmasked: Insider’s Tips + Tricks for Success in Small Business Marketing with Stephanie Frost and Erik Wolf. This discussion is based on a book written by the discussion hosts. It delves into all things small business, and will likely provide an overview of the topics touched on inside of the book including small business marketing, social media, SEO, branding, advertising and more.

How to Unplan Your Business Idea with David Sloly and Ian Sanders. I suppose this one stuck out to me because the notion the title suggests is so opposite of what we’ve been taught and practiced throughout the years. Clearly these guys know how to grab attention with a sensationalized title. Consider me curious…

So, for those of you who can’t make it this year, are there any questions you’d like me to ask on your behalf? I’d be happy to investigate some of the topics you’re most interested in and report back here. Also, be sure to follow the Newtek crew on Twitter during the Interactive conference at #NewtSXSW.

If you’re a loyal NPR listener, are married to your New York Times subscription or even a casual CNN viewer, you already know that small businesses are expected to be the underdog champions of the economic recovery.

As every small business owner knows, selecting the right merchant processing plan will weigh heavily on 2010 growth.

There are many merchant processing providers available to you, which is why it’s important to cut through the clutter quickly. In the interest of narrowing your options efficiently, we’ve identified five questions you need to prospective processing providers before making a decision:

1. How satisfied are your customers?
   If you’re looking for a long-term solution, this one is important. Don’t be afraid to ask for references from current customers, and search the potential provider’s website for testimonials. Your best advocates in this search are your fellow customers. And if you are handling the back-end aspect of your site yourself, or have a consultant doing it for you, these additional bonuses would be incredibly nice to have: a comprehensive developer library for quick troubleshooting and constant access to customer support (see #2 for more).

2. Will you be there for me 24/7/365?
   Many times, when things go wrong, they don’t happen between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. If you operate a 24-hour business and you experience a glitch at 3 a.m. on a Sunday morning, it’s essential that your provider be available 24/7/365 to you to help you through the issue promptly.

3. Are your rates competitive with other solutions?
   This is a tricky one as you need to search for the right balance when it comes to rates and fees. If fees seem excessively low, and it looks too good to be true, trust your gut because it probably is. On the flip side, for businesses traditionally viewed as “high risk” (those like travel and tourism businesses that rely almost exclusively on advanced booking), you’ll want to ensure you receive a fair assessment all the way down the line, from gateway fees to transaction fees. Look for a provider that will provide rates that can easily compete with most popular gateways, and ask if they’ll provide a complimentary cost analysis if you provide your statement. And above all, be leery of any provider that locks you into a contract or charges a cancellation fee, both of which are non-existent with Newtek.

4. Will your payment solution integrate easily with my website?
   Again, whether you’re handling the back-end yourself or have hired a consultant to do it for you, this one is incredibly important. If I had to guess, you (or your technical consultant) don’t have time to go looking around for documentation on integrating the payment solution into your custom shopping cart. Sign on with a provider that will readily provide access to web service support in .NET, PHP and more. (If any of these terms are foreign to you, you’re not alone. Click here.)

5. How quickly will I (or my client) have access to transaction funds?
   The goal of any ecommerce plan is to make the sale and see the funds hit your bank account, right? Before committing to working with any merchant processing provider, be sure to inquire about the speed of the process. With some providers it may take 4 to 5 days to see the funds hit, whereas many other programs (like NewtPay) deliver funds in as few as 48 hours. Cash flow is vital to any growth plan, so fund availability is an important factor to include in the decision-making process.

These five questions will help you find a solution that will inevitable become an integral piece of your growth plan in 2010. This list is in no way complete, but rather provides a baseline for early research. In your opinion, what other factors should be considered in identifying and implementing a merchant processing plan? Help us add to the list in the comments below…

We’ve become an increasingly self-reliant society. Ten years ago, instead of installing new flooring ourselves, we would have called in the professionals to do it for us. This is not to say that everyone opts to go with the DIY route (when it comes to manual labor I certainly don’t), but the point is, it’s become a viable option in just about every area of our lives.

One company exemplifies this “DIY” movement. We’re all familiar with the incredibly popular Home Depot tagline, “You can do it. We can help.” Brilliant. In the wake of their success, many other companies have adopted the DIY concept, empowering their customers to get their own hands a bit dirty, with the expertise and backing of the providing company – a safety net of sorts.

So you still don’t have a website? Why not?

That same level of autonomy and empowerment is spilling into the online marketplace, which is why it’s surprising that 60% of small businesses still don’t have a website. This figure is according to a recent 2009 study conducted by Discover® Small Business Watch.SM

While I’m sure there are a million different reasons why businesses are NOT online (too busy, focused on building traffic to their brick-and-mortar stores, etc.), with the emergence of DIY website builders, the reasons keeping business owners from taking their business online are diminishing. So without further ado…

Three reasons why you should give a DIY website builder a go:

1. It’s time already!
   Perhaps you have a successful brick-and-mortar business and you’ve grown entirely by word of mouth. If you have, congratulations! WOM marketing is one of the best types of marketing and speaks volumes about the quality of your business. Take that success and apply it online. You’re poised to hit an untapped pool of customers who (shockingly) have not yet heard of your company or establishment. The time for modesty has passed, friends. If your customers and critics are saying nice things about you, tell the world. After all, your mother can only do so much…
2. Get your goods online
   Whether you’re an independent artist, a mom-and-pop shop, freelance consultant or a multi-location small business owner, your products and services have a very limited reach if only available in-store or through networking events if you’re a professional services freelancer. DIY builders make it easy to get your products online quickly. If you’ve got products to seel, you can have them up and available to a much wider base within minutes. Once your bottom line starts to soar, you’ll be glad you made the push for Ecommerce.
3. Chance to be artistic – no graphic design education required
   No one knows your business better than you, so who better to reflect that visually? With a multitude of different design schemes to select from, (we offer more than 700) you can bring your vision to life, and let the builder carry out all of the necessary back-end coding and programming. So, really, by using a website builder you can get a personally designed site up and running quickly and skip out on four years of classroom time (not to mention the painful remnants of student loans that still haunt many of us.) Best of all, with most builders, while you get to play with the look and feel and overall design of your site, you’ll still have access to a team of professionals available 24/7/365 to assist you

So there you have it: Three excellent reasons to give a DIY Website Builder a try (even better if you can try it out for free.) Honorable mentions include:

• The ability to change your content on a whim rather than having to coordinate with a designer and wait for the next website publish window
• A chance to really peel back the curtain and  connect with your customers by adding a company blog that embodies your unique corporate culture
• Websites are an easy place to point customers looking for more information, and a handy addition to any business card

Now then. What are you waiting for? It’s 2010. By now you’ve run out of reasons to let another year slip by without establishing a strong web presence. To borrow from a well-known brand that set the stage for the DIY movement, “You can do it. We can help.”

And if DIY isn’t your style, stay tuned. The next blog will discuss why a custom design may be a better choice for you…